In a recent sermon broadcast on official PA TV, the Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs compared Arafat's death to that of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, saying both were poisoned and murdered by Jews.

According to the Hadith (sayings and practices attributed to Islam's Prophet Muhammad), a Jewish woman in the Jewish town of Khaibar served Muhammad poisoned meat. On his deathbed three years later, Muhammad told his wife Aisha that the pain he was experiencing was caused by the poisoned meat that he was given by the Jews.

In his sermon, PA Minister of Religious Affairs Al-Habbash preached that Arafat was murdered in the same way as Muhammad, repeating three times that Muhammad died from poison given to him in Khaibar - a town known for being Jewish in Islamic tradition:

"Yasser Arafat died a Martyr (Shahid) - we don't have the slightest doubt that they (i.e., the Jews/Israelis) killed him. One way or another, they killed him. Even Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] - they (i.e., the Jews) killed him with poison. When he was dying, he said to his wife Aisha: 'I feel the same pain I felt from the poison that I ate at Khaibar (Jewish village).' Poison that he ate at Khaibar. He continued to feel the pain until he died. 'I feel the same pain I felt from the poison that I ate at Khaibar.'"

In 2012, the PA decided to take samples from Arafat's remains to test if he had been poisoned. Recently, a Swiss and a Russian team have published the results of these tests. The Swiss team concluded that the tests were "coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning." However, a member of the team also stated that "our study did not permit us to demonstrate categorically the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium." The Russian report concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning." [Reuters, Nov. 8, 2013]

Nevertheless, PA Minister Al-Habbash concluded his sermon as follows:

"They killed him. Even Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] - they (i.e., the Jews) killed him with poison... Be satisfied, oh mighty one, oh Martyr Arafat, that you were killed the same way Allah's Messenger was killed... We have no doubt, and I don't think there is a single one among us who has the slightest doubt that Arafat was killed. Deep inside we all know who killed him."

"Yasser Arafat died a Martyr (Shahid) - we don't have the slightest doubt that they (i.e., the Jews/Israelis) killed him. One way or another, they killed him. Even Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] - they (i.e., the Jews) killed him with poison. When he was dying, he said to his wife Aisha: 'I feel the same pain I felt from the poison that I ate at Khaibar (Jewish village). Poison that he ate at Khaibar. He continued to feel the pain until he died. 'I feel the same pain I felt from the poison that I ate at Khaibar.'
Be satisfied, oh mighty one, oh Martyr Arafat, that you were killed the same way Allah's Messenger was killed... We have no doubt, and I don't think there is a single one among us who has the slightest doubt that Arafat was killed. Deep inside we all know who killed him."

[Official PA TV, Nov. 8, 2013]

It should be noted that in response to reports about Arafat being poisoned, The Independent wrote the following:

"A leading British biomedical scientist says it is 'highly unlikely' that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in a French hospital in 2004 from a lethal dose of radioactive polonium... Professor Nicholas Priest, who formerly headed the biomedical research unit of the Atomic Energy Authority in Britain, told The Independent that, while poisoning by polonium 'cannot be totally ruled out,' the symptoms were very different from those of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006... He pointed out that polonium would be naturally produced in the bones of anyone buried as a by-product of the bones absorbing lead from the soil, a point, he said, that 'the authors of the report understand but the journalists do not'... Professor Priest said it was 'far too dangerous and scientifically unjustified' to calculate how much polonium was in Arafat's body on the basis of 'such tiny concentrations of polonium.'"